Electronic Arts pulls plug on Take-Two takeover

£1 billion offer for GTA company retracted

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Games developer Electronic Arts has withdrawn its offer to purchase Take-Two Interactive, signaling the end of a five-month hostile takeover bid for the company, the parent of Rockstar Games, developers of the Grand Theft Auto series.

EA said it abandoned the takeover because the economics of the deal stopped making sense. Its willingness to close the agreement apparently depending on whether the company could integrate Take-Two's property in time for its holiday sales season.

"Enough time has passed that our economic model is obsolete," said EA's spokesman Jeff Brown.

"We can no longer integrate their titles into our global distribution for the holiday."

Off the table

A merging of EA and Take-Two was viewed by the industry as a potentially effective union, with investors believing that EA's size and Take-Two's creative flair could have produced high quality games.

Take-Two has invited EA to a meeting to keep discussions going, and while Brown has said the company will participate, he has made it clear that EA doesn't intend to renew the buyout attempt, and that the offer is well and truly off the table.

Looks like Niko Bellic's PGA Tour 2009 might be back on the shelf for quite a while, then...